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Syracuse football team starts day with good look around New York from Empire State Building

Junior running back Prince-Tyson Gulley checks some images he captured on his cell phone this morning during a Syracuse University team tour of the Empire State Building.
(Photo by Nolan Weidner/The Post-Standard)

New York – The Syracuse University football team took a real good look around the city first thing this morning.

The Orange arrived in Manhattan on Tuesday evening to begin preparing for Saturday’s 2012 New Era Pinstripe Bowl game against West Virginia, but an early trip to the top of the iconic Empire State Building gave the players – some of whom could almost see the neighborhoods they grew up in – a stunning view of the area.

Players, many clad in brand new Pinstripe Bowl warm-ups and blue and white New York stocking hats, rode elevators to the building’s 86th floor observation deck, then spent 20-30 minutes looking out at a clear view of Manhattan and surrounding areas that extended into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The panorama impressed area natives such as junior defensive tackle Jay Bromley, who had never taken the tour despite growing up in nearby Jamaica-Queens.

“No, I haven’t (visited) – in all of my years in New York City. It’s amazing,” Bromley said. “I’m a little scared of heights, but I’m trying to just calm that down because it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Bromley said he was okay, as long as he didn’t look down for too long.

“I can’t even really see people (below), so it’s just crazy. I’m just really glad that we’ve got these gates, man,” he said of the metal fencing that encircled the outdoor portion of the 1,050-foot-high observation deck.

Senior offensive guard Zack Chibane, who hails from Paramus, N.J. – about 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan – also was making his first trip to near the top of the 103-story building that’s designated as a national historic landmark.

“That’s a little too high for me,” said Chibane, who spent most of his time on the observation deck inside, and out of the 29-degree chill at 7:30 a.m.

Syracuse University defensive coordinator Scott Shafer and freshman cornerback Julian Whigham pose this morning on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.Nolan Weidner/The Post-Standard

Bromley said that despite what some of his teammates think, he wouldn’t make a good New York City tour guide.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Everybody thinks that because you’re from the city you automatically know everything about Manhattan. I’m from Queens. You don’t really come to the city for too many things. I tell them to look other places for advice.”

Los Angeles native Deon Goggins said he was impressed by the quiet and serenity provided by being high above Manhattan’s early morning din and bustle.

“It’s a lot calmer up there,” he said. “You wouldn’t even think this is up here, because down there everything is moving and, like you say … the city that never sleeps.

“It’s lovely. I love it. All you need is some waves and some sand and we’d really be good,” Goggins said.